This is the first year that my family has staggered the holidays in such a perfect way that we’ve not only had a chance to see each other in various family settings (baking cookies with my sisters, niece and mom, celebrating Christmas at my dad’s with my sisters and niece, celebrating with M’s family, and finally, hosting Christmas at our house for the first time ever, with my sister Jess and Scott and my mom – sans grandparents who weren’t feeling well, though we did get a ‘virtual’ visit via Skype!), it’s felt busy-ish but not rushed, savored, not blurry, and with the right level of balance I am striving for right now. In a word, this holiday so far has been: perfect.

So I give you an almost wordless Wednesday, the holidays, in pictures. Cheers!

~~

Showering my niece in the girliest of girly clothes, and she *had* to model them for us. She is *such* a girl! ❤Celebrating Christmas bestie-style. A long time coming!Moments of Isabel sprinkled throughout the weekend. And when she reaches for a hug and a kiss, it’s evident that she has a heart just like her namesake, my Nonna. SO loving (just like my sister Jen, too!) ❤Capturing some family shots. I LOVE the picture I captured of my dad gathering Isabel up into a giant ‘dad hug’ and kiss.The holidays wouldn’t even be complete without some fitdates with besties and my ‘kindred’ Meaghan, and lots and lots of barre n9ne action!Brunch is most definitely going to become a new tradition for Christmas! It was delish! Menu: mini bagels, cream cheese and lox, crackers and cheese, stuffed mushrooms, craisin/walnut/apple/spinach salad, potato leek soup, and for ‘dessert’ – greek yogurt with pear/apple/pomegranate seeds, walnuts, granola and flax (a yogurt ‘bar’!), and the best cinnamon rolls I have EVER had (thank you sis!!), topped off with prosecco/mimosas!A few candids/bloopers always make it fun 😉

Yes, folks, I am crawling into Friday today. And the sentiment seems to be overwhelmingly similar, whereever I look. Longest.Week.Ever.

Perhaps it is the #lakation that is taunting me (Wednesday night- Sunday!!).

Or the humidity that is effing up my running mojo.

Or the fact that as of tomorrow, I will have taught 7 b9 classes and my legs are on fi-ya. #hurtssogood!

Anyway.

I personally love the quickie ‘Friday Five’ ‘Things I’m loving’ ‘Friday Fun” type posts that I’ve been reading today so I’m throwing another one of these together cuz it’s what’s swirling. Go with it, shall we?

I’m loving all things subbed-with-Chobani lately. (of course, we must include a foodie ‘love’ in this post!)

Like this amazingly delish egg salad. Rather than mayo, I used plain Chobani greek yogurt. Oh Em. Gee.

Egg Salad Extraordinaire! (not even being dramatic…THAT GOOD).

I also ate Chobani as a snack this week and added a tsp of nutella in it and Oh. Em. Gee. X1000. Di-Vine. (but THESE concoctions look even better! MUST visit Christine and go to Chobani SoHo!).

I’m loving seeing what I refer to as ‘running angels’ on this week’s runs.

Given humidity is in high effect right now, several of my runs were downright brutal. Completely mental. But every time I run past these two elderly women on a certain stretch of road (they always end up about half mile from each other, they must do their morning walks at the same time or something), they always smile, wave, and say hello. And that truly makes my run improve immensely. So I have started calling them my running angels because when I see them, I stand a little taller, run a little faster and smile and wave right back. And then I’m perked up enough to finish out my run strong. #itsthelittlethings

I’m loving my sisters and my niece. As always. More than ever.

First of all, just LOOK at that face. I just want to kiss it and snuggle! She looks so much like Jen right now, it’s ridiculous. And warms my heart every single time.

I die of cuteness overload. ❤

My sisters, well, what can I say? I had such a fun sister/niece night about a week ago with Jen and Isabel and the little moments are just the best. Her SECOND birthday is coming up (!) and I’ve already snagged the cutest outfits from Rue La La, not to mention other toys I am conniving 😉 She will be spoiled and there’s nothing more to say than that. As for Jess? Well, the more we learn about our own capabilities as barre n9ne instructors, runners, and working on that elusive thing called balance, the more we – for lack of a better term – balance each other out. More than ever, we are helping smack each other into reality when we OATT too much, fret over something that really doesn’t even need fretting over (yes, I am using the word fret, what of it?), and just trust and believe in ourselves and each other. I’m looking forward to a sister ‘date’ tonight with her and I think it will be fabulous (there will be wine involved, I mean, how could it *not?*).

M’s ability to ‘stand me.’

Given aforementioned longest.week.ever, I’ve been, shall we say, a tad bit grouchy. Yet it never ceases to amaze me how M just rolls with the (proverbial!) punches. If I bitch about socks in the corner, he shakes his head (and then puts them away), if I complain that he made a mess in the kitchen, he laughs it off (and then offers to clean, which I decline, because he just made dinner and I’m just being a brat). And when I tell him that I don’t know how he ‘stands me’ sometimes, he tells me ‘I stand you because I love you. More than anything.’

Swoon. (and I broke my rule about talking about M here, but sometimes, I just can’t help it <3).

Last, but not least, I am loving that this week is just about over.

I know, I know, stop can’t waiting. But sometimes you just gotta give in to it and work for the weekend. And that, my friends, is exactly what I am doing. Finishing out the day and then amped for a jam packed but fabulous weekend ahead. Teaching 3 barre n9ne classes, another wedding with M (yay, I love dressing up!) and #sundayfunday of course.

Happy weekend, friends, and I hope you embrace every second just like I plan to 😉 Finally Effing Friday!!

When I wrote ‘live more, chronicle less’ I honestly didn’t think I would adjust to it as quickly as I have. And yet, a week has gone by and I haven’t written one post. Or thought about it much, either.

And it’s been great.

I guess it means it was the right decision for me right now, huh? Yet, I have all these thoughts and half-written posts flitting through my brain, yet nothing too earthshattering or ‘complete’ yet, so I figure I might as well keep it to myself (wink) rather than bore everyone with minutia!

However, I do have a few snippets to share…in pictures.

On capturing incredible images. Like this one, in Maine, after a fierce storm, just before I dove into homemade blueberry pie that my sister Jess and I made with my Gram on #lakation

Or running in my sports bra…’naked’ if you will. And it felt freeing and with much-needed ‘air-conditioning’ as the weather was downright muggy and thick when we attempted this at the lake (running during lakation was a mental game, but I proudly ran 4 times and pushed through…how’s that for a mini run-imation?)

…and spending time with this man, who I love so very much. And sharing some moments that will remain unspoken, on the dock, lounging, talking, just being (reminiscent of this moment last summer…)

And spending much-needed niece and ‘Mimi’ (what Isabel calls my mom!) time together last week during one of our now (hopefully!) regular ‘sister dinners’ My niece is growing so fast, I can hardly believe it. She says auntie and calls for us, she knows us! She knows her ‘uncle’ Scott and her face lights up in recognition. It’s the most awesome feeling in the world, to know that she KNOWS me. ❤

I am living, not chronicalling, the details. And it feels better than I ever thought possible. There’s stuff I want to talk about, but it can wait. For time to do it. But right now, I’m having far too much fun living the sh#@t out of summer. XOXO friends, cheers!

Like this:

As I trot off to California for the next four days, I will sear into memory a blissful weekend that I truly believe was even MORE blissful because of shifting my focus and not going into this trip with any sort of ‘dread’ (except for the goodbye to M, which is always, always so hard), but with perspective that it’ll be a fantastic experience, filled with growth.

Without further ado…

Another ‘happy miles’ run with M, even if a bee did chase me and I ran like the wind 😉got my sushi fix on Friday night, with a glass of wine on the patioImpromptu trip to the lake on Saturday…check out that glisten.got to dip my toes into the lake, not as chilly as I thought, either 😉a sister cookout at Jess and Scott’s, never complete without a photo bomb 😉I ❤ my sisters!

Complete with dinner on the deck and a crisp rose, and the weekend rounds out to a beautiful close…

And on a weekend that has marked the passing of my Nonna (May 20, 2009), I couldn’t help but think that this picture perfect weekend is her, smiling down, happy to see the happiness and love in my life, and in my sister’s lives too. I hugged my niece a little tighter, with her namesake (Isabel) and just smiled, my heart happy.

She climbed right up into my lap…and though it was just briefly, it’s captured.

Share this:

Like this:

This weekend was by far, one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time.

And you know why?

Because it was almost completely unplanned and underscheduled (as opposed to many weekends of late, where I feel like I’ve been hopping from plan to plan without much time to actually enjoy what I am doing, more worried about actually not being late. Which, in hindsight, is probably also my problem. It’s okay to be late once in awhile!). I honestly felt as though I was in a state of euphoric happiness the entire weekend because of it.

And what did we do?

Visited my beautiful niece Isabel, where I got some much-needed niece snuggles (she laid against my chest, body facing outward, as I tried to rock her towards a nap, but she just laid there and cuddled and chattered and I was melting. It was such a moment for me, because she’s been so on-the-go since she started walking that she doesn’t cuddle as much or want to be held as much. But in that moment, she did, and I loved every minute of it! (did I mention that my sister might be moving back to this state soon?! That makes for a very happy auntie/sister!). How beautiful and grown up does she look here?!

In that moment, and many moments this weekend, I tried my best to stay present. I try more than ever on the weekend to do that, since during the week, time is a blur, far more than I’d like. And reading Emma’s post on this helped me stay firmly planted in the present

. …As M and I had a leisurely evening making grilled swordfish, roasted vegetables and a salad, clinking to the evening over a glass (or two!) or prosecco and cracking open a newly shipped bottle of wine from Michel-Schlumberger.

…And as I used Saturday’s dreadmill run to hit my longest indoor run to-date (5.5 miles. doesn’t seem uber long, but on the dreadmill, it’s far longer than outdoors!) as I tried to focus on what Emma also noted in that post…to use running as ‘meditation in motion’ and wow, did that work wonders! And what a beautiful way of putting it, right? Meditation in motion. YES.

…I also stayed present at barre n9ne yesterday for a rare Sunday class (I usually take weekends off to run etc), focusing on form, breathing, and well, focus. Rather than rushing right home as I usually do on weeknights (usually because I am ravenous for dinner!), I took some time to do a few errands and dabble at Old Navy for some new running gear for outdoors. Score. Huge sale. Cue shopping euphoria 😉

The weekend wrapped up with homemade pizza and football at my sister Jess’s house. Perfect capper to a perfect weekend. And for some reason, I am feeling that sense of presence follow me today, as I reflect on a perfectly unplanned weekend, and am feeling glimmers of inspiration and perspective from that, from last week’s somewhat cathartic post, and realization that it’s going to be okay. Ups and downs happen. Going to do my best to stay in the present on the ‘up’...who’s with me?!